USAT | Digital chief Payne: With rich-media ads, 'the only way for consumers to tolerate that is to make the advertising part of the experience'

Q. What was the most major challenge for you and your team working on a rethinking of the USAT website?A. For news websites to be sustainable businesses, they are going to need to migrate from what is fundamentally a bottom-of-the-marketing funnel direct-response medium to a top-of-the-funnel marketing platform. The only way to do that is to create an experience where high-impact, sound-and-motion rich media ads can be trafficked across all platforms seamlessly. And the only way for consumers to tolerate that is to make the advertising part of the experience.

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."